Thinking about career change..court reporter

• Thinking about career change..court reporter - Jean
  • I sure wouldn't. VR will end up doing most, SM - MsIndigo
    • I dont think VR is a problem.. - Jean
  • FYI - article - joyful
    • I always thought that the reason CR wasn't replaced -sm - LowlyMT
    • Could you post a link to this article? - Jean
  • Yes, been to CR school - sm
    • Court reporting - OneEverywhere
      • court reporting - RJ
      • How is the pay? Can it be done from home? (nm) - JenniMT

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I am thinking about going back to school but I want to start off small.  I looked into CNA classes at a local community college but I also found they have medication aide classes.  I was wondering if it would be appropriate to call a potential employer and ask if there is a big job market out any of these, what they pay would be and what they expect out of their workers.  I really know what a certified nurses aide entails, I was one 10 years ago but not quite sure about a medication aide. 

Does anyone have experience with CR training?  Anyone made the transition from MT to CR, or the other way around?  I am looking into this as an alternative to MT.  My chief regret is that it is rather late in life for me to invest in expensive/lengthy training.  I should have seen the writing on the wall long before this, as far as MT is concerned. 

My post on a court reporter board met with thundering disinterest...not a single reply.  Would appreciate input on this if anyone has first or even secondhand experience.

The pay was pitiful, $1/page, and the quality not all that great. Apparently, the good pay is going to the actual CR and not the schlub doing the "work".

I have read on these boards many of the MTs leaving for different career choices.  Many for nursing or such, but are there any of us out there that has consider or is doing E-Bay sales?  I have dabbled in this.  I am wondering if anyone would like to e-mail me what they are doing and if they find it a nice change.

Thanks.

-Losing faith- 

I've been working now for nearly a year.  Mostly I have done podiatry and clinic notes.  I'm thinking of making a change to radiology or neuro/phsyc.  Any tips on how to do this?  I know podiatry terms and rarely have to look anything up anymore, but there doesn't seem to be much work out there for the subspecialty.  Any advice would be great.  I've been applying to every ad I see, but no replies yet. 

I know a lot of new MTs go into acute care, but I'm finding I am far more productive working with one specialty rather than acute care or clinic notes. 

Any advice?  Thanks.

Oh, working in-office isn't an option because of where I live.

I've only been in this biz for about 13 years, but now that my last one is off to school, I'm also thinking about a career change.  I live in a very rural area as well, so I understand completely what you mean about people thinking $8 an hour is a good wage. 

One thing I'd like to suggest is looking into a state job.  We have 2 state prisons in my area (about a 20-minute commute) and both hire medical transcriptionists as well as medical records personnel.  These jobs generally start out at about $12 to $15 an hour plus state benefits, which in my state are the best bennies anywhere.  The jobs that require coding certification pay even more.  I would highly recommend that you look on the internet for state civil service jobs in your state.  You'd be surprised at the opportunities in the medical field. 

I'm considering this option myself but want to wait until next fall, after I have the summer to spend with my kids (and so I don't start out "in the hole" because of babysitting expenses) and to have time to look into getting my coding cert.  I graduated from a business school with an Associate's in medical secretarial and did a lot of coding prior to working from home.  I used to do billing for a very large rehab facility, so I don't think it will be too hard to brush up on my skills.

Anyway, good luck and let me know if this (a state job) pans out for you.  Most people have no idea these kinds of jobs are even out there (I didn't).

nm

In your place, I would seriously consider changing providers if there were others available in your area, but I'd ask around about their service quality first.  It may not be any better.  If there are no other providers, then consider changing your service package to a business account rather than residential.  They're usually more expensive, but they also tend to get faster service if there's a problem.

Last summer, I had no electricity for 3 days due to severe storms, but there were some 600,000 in the same boat with me.  We just had to wait it out.  It's a downside of working at home.

Thought I had a great, lengthy report the other day, for it to be over 7 minutes of one physician talking with another about getting sued by a patient due to overmedicating - the patient overmedicated, but the doctor prescribed the meds.  Anyway - have any of you ever had to go to court and testify?  This, along with Dr.Infection (almost every report I get is someone who has had surgery and now is infected - and this is not an infectious disease physician but the surgeon), I am wondering if I will ever get called in.  I can't believe that none of these patient's are suing.  Just wanted to vent and get someone's take on this.

Out here in CA, if you have unpaid tickets, a warrant is issued.  So when you show up at DMV or the court house, you most probably will have to pay right away or explain to a justice why you need an extension to pay.  They probably wont want to hear the argument that it was your sister cause you dont have proof.  You will be responsible and then you can kick your sisters butt or sue her. I have a friend who had outstanding speeding ticket and the cops came to her house, arrested her and she had to spend the weekend in jail till Monday when her boyfriend was able to bring the money to the court house. 

Out here, we have cameras at stop lights and on different roads..So when someone is exceeding the speed limit or goes through a red light, the camera takes a picture.  You never see an officer, you receive the ticket in the mail and they have the picture for proof.  Good luck to you. 

Hello all !   Years ago I considered getting into court reporting, but back then I remember being told you only get paid PER PAGE/LINE, and not for your time in the court room when you're recording the cases. Recently I was told a court reporter gets anywhere from $3 to $5 per page.

Does anyone have any info on how payment for court reporters works? Is the above true?  I thought MT was a better-paying position, as the whole go-to-work-and-jot-down-the-text part was eliminated - and we (used to) make good money doing MT. 

Any info would be interesting! Thanks  !

I am not sure what your limit is for small claims court, it used to be $3500 here but know it has changed.   If it is more than one doctor in practice, you need to find out how they are listed through their business license, etc. through the state.  They helped me at the courthouse how to do this as it had to be listed exactly.  If you want to make a last ditch effort and make sure it isn't just the office manager that is not paying you, send a certified letter to each doctor that has to be signed by them and them only outlining what you will be doing and why.  You can act as your own collection agency instead of paying someone a commission to collect the money from you.   That is why I always keep on file a copy of their checking account number that they pay me on as I did sue once and we used it to collect the funds.  Also if the 7K is over the amount of small claims, then perhaps breaking out each individual doctor is under the amount.  But that is a pretty big amount and cannot believe that you let it go that high unless it is a large account and that is only one to two month's worth.  But again, try to get the correspondence directly to the docs as sometimes they do not know that the bill is going unpaid.   Good luck, let us know what happens.   Hopefully you are no longer providing service to this clinic.  Do some digging and get home address phone numbers if you are that gutsy and for that amount I would probably do it. 

Again, good luck.

Well over half and probably 75% of court recordings are now on CD's as well as dispositions and are being transcribed only if necessary or requested and many times at home by some of us. 

Recently there had been an ad in our local paper for a full-time court reporter for the superior court in our local area.  It was advertised at $78,000 per year with full federal benefits, and bonus days off like President's day (when was the last time a MT got paid for being off on President's Day?)   Again, I too pick the wrong career and should have went into court reporting but at that time (in 1976) there was not a lot of interest in that field so I just went into transcription training and here I am 30 years later.  Can you still teach an old dog new tricks?

I definitely would go to school for court reporting, but unfortunately I am too old (64). I know this would be very interesting. Where I live near Chicago, they have an excellent court reporting program that a person can take.

Also, you can work at home eventually. Like I said if I were younger, I would go for court reporting.

It seems like there is more job security in court reporting -- and much better money.  I'm really thinking of getting out of medical transcription... just so tired of getting paid less and less to do the same job.  I was just laid off a great in-house job and I am really wondering if transcription is right for me anymore.  

*people who do bad things get breast cancer*, talking about the editor.  Rose is not a nice person.   In fact, she said *the (expletive omitted) ain't so nice anymore* or something to that effect.  Yep, what a role model.

After the court reporter translates his/her steno there are usually mistranslates and untranslates.  Reporters are so swamped, they don't have the time to do it themselves, so they use scopists.  There are good reporters and there are really bad reporters.  I know there are schools out there, but reporters and their scopists are usually pretty 'tight' and a reporter will want an experienced scopist, because the reporter has to certify the finished transcript.  So you HAVE to know what you're doing. Most scopists are ex-reporters and scopists work as ICs.  This work is not as easy as it sounds.  There are times I've had to stay up all night scoping a 200 page transcript that was needed by 8am next day - and I didn't get it until nearly 9pm.  A transcript is a verbatim re-creation of human speech.  Think about the way people talk and try putting that on paper.  Most transcripts have audio attached or sometimes video.  You have to get every stutter, stammer, bad grammer and bad word. There is usually a lot "butting-in" and people talking over each other - you have to get that correct.  The editing software is expensive and can be tough for some people to learn. The reporter you work with may have a different software than you have so you have to know how to convert the files.  You have to know how to help the reporter build her dictionary, plus different reporters may have different formating preferences.  But the normal TAT is days instead of hours, double to triple pay if it's an expedite (next day), the lines are double spaced and no more 65-character lines - a line is a line even if the only word is 'Yes' (you get paid by the page).  And this work will NEVER be offshored. You can work your rear off for two or three weeks and have very little to nothing for the next week or two. Due to a shortage of reporters, some shorter hearings are digitally taped then put to CD and given to a reporter who gives it to the scopist to transcribe (if the reporter had time to do it she'd be in the court room in the first place, right?).  So it HAS to be correct (did he say I-I-I three times or four?) but you get paid triple.  And you think medical reports can be graphic?  You ain't heard nothing, yet.  Try listening to a murder or rape case - especially when a child is involved. 

Fortunately, I had a mentor scopist (35 years experience) that taught me well.  I worked with her for a long time before she felt I was good enough to go out on my own.  Word of mouth has given me more business and I only do MT 1 or 2 days a week now, but that will be ending completely soon. Less stress, more money and more time to myself. The online schools make it sound easy, but it isn't.  Scoping is not for everyone and it can be tough to get your foot in the door.   If you are comfortable with MT, stay with it.